This unit has been designed for year 5 classes in the years 2012 or 2013. These students are part of a significant time in Australia’s history as 2013 marks 225 years since white settlers arrived in our country. It is important for these students to participate in this unit as it asks them to learn about our history and who contributed to Australia becoming the country it is today. This unit and the context align with the SOSE essential learnings in the Time Continuity and Change strand and the English essential learnings involving purposes for reading and constructing texts. Aligning the unit with these essential learnings ensures that the planning and assessment for this unit line up with the year level requirements (QSA, 2010).
The unit will assess students’ research skills, reflection and justification skills and information technology skills. Assessment is a necessary part of the unit, Matters (2005) states that assessment creates the opportunity for learners to demonstrate their learning and to provide evidence of the students learning, the evidence of this learning will be displayed using ICT's. Students are able to demonstrate what they have learnt when the learning manager ensures that assessment is linked to instruction as discussed by Learning Point Associates (n.d.) who describe embedding the assessment into the process of learning, ensuring that the assessment will provide the necessary evidence of the learning that has taken place (Matters, 2005).
The summative task is an authentic task (Cumming and Maxwell, 1997) allowing students are able to transfer the knowledge gained from this assessment to other areas of learning and their future position in this country. Students are required to research some important people in Australia’s history and then apply this knowledge to make decisions about who will be placed on a new Australian $200 note.
Introduction
This unit has been designed for year 5 classes in the years 2012 or 2013. These students are part of a significant time in Australia’s history as 2013 marks 225 years since white settlers arrived in our country. It is important for these students to participate in this unit as it asks them to learn about our history and who contributed to Australia becoming the country it is today. This unit and the context align with the SOSE essential learnings in the Time Continuity and Change strand and the English essential learnings involving purposes for reading and constructing texts. Aligning the unit with these essential learnings ensures that the planning and assessment for this unit line up with the year level requirements (QSA, 2010).
The unit will assess students’ research skills, reflection and justification skills and information technology skills. Assessment is a necessary part of the unit, Matters (2005) states that assessment creates the opportunity for learners to demonstrate their learning and to provide evidence of the students learning, the evidence of this learning will be displayed using ICT's. Students are able to demonstrate what they have learnt when the learning manager ensures that assessment is linked to instruction as discussed by Learning Point Associates (n.d.) who describe embedding the assessment into the process of learning, ensuring that the assessment will provide the necessary evidence of the learning that has taken place (Matters, 2005).
The summative task is an authentic task (Cumming and Maxwell, 1997) allowing students are able to transfer the knowledge gained from this assessment to other areas of learning and their future position in this country. Students are required to research some important people in Australia’s history and then apply this knowledge to make decisions about who will be placed on a new Australian $200 note.
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